1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to wheel loader having a machine body travelably supported on wheels and a work device mounted on the machine body.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, there is provided a wheel loader having a machine body travelably supported on front and rear wheels, and a work device supported to a front portion of the machine body, the work device including a boom having a base portion thereof supported to the machine body to be vertically pivotable, an arm pivotally connected to the leading end of the boom to be pivotable in the fore/aft direction, and a work implement pivotally attached to the leading end of the arm (see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application “Kokai” No. 2005-171608
In the case of the conventional wheel loaders, e.g. one having a bucket, as the work implement, oriented to the front side, with the rear face side thereof being pivoted to the leading end of the arm, so that the bucket is capable of scooping/dumping operations, when a scooping operation for scooping a working target such as earth/sand, compost, snow, etc., or a digging operation is to be carried out, under a working posture where the pivot of the bucket is located downwardly of the pivot of the arm and the bottom face of the bucket faces the ground surface, the arm is pivotally operated to bring the bucket closer to the machine body and then from this condition, the arm is pivoted forward to cause the bucket to effect the scooping action. This mode of operation has the advantage that a great amount of earth/sand or the like can be scooped by the bucket.
In the above case, under the condition of the arm being pivoted to bring the bucket closer to the machine body, the machine body is caused to travel forward to bring the leading end of the bucket closer to or into contact with the earth/sand or the like. Under this condition, the machine body is stopped and the arm will be pivoted forwardly to cause the bucket to effect the scooping action. In the course of this, when the scooping action of the bucket is started with the operator moving his/her foot off the traveling pedal to the brake pedal, during the period from the detachment of the foot from the traveling pedal to stepping on the brake pedal with the same foot, there occurs a problem that the machine body may be inadvertently moved rearward due to the reaction force from the earth/sand or the like.
This problem can be solved if the driver starts the scooping action, with the brake being applied by a stepping operation on the brake pedal. In this case; however, there will occur momentary suspension in the series of operations from the forward traveling to the scooping action, during the drive's moving his/her foot from the traveling pedal to the brake pedal. As a result, the operational efficiency deteriorates.
Further, the driver needs to confirm that the brake pedal has been stepped on and then to start operating the arm. Hence, there is another problem of troublesome operation and poor working efficiency.
Incidentally, similar problems occur also, in the case of a construction wherein the bucket as a work implement is pivoted to the leading end of the arm to be capable of raking/dumping actions or in the case of effecting similar actions with a different work implement (e.g. the case when the work implement is subjected to a reaction force from the working object when the arm is pivoted).
Then, the object of the present invention is to provide a wheel loader with improved operability.